Ewww ticks!!

Bens first ever tick!! Lovely

I have tick removing tweezers so I thought I would be brave and give it a go myself

Hooked them on below the ticks body and twisted, after a couple of rotations the tick came off

How can I be sure I didnt leave the head in there??
I was looking and there is a wee lump where the tick was but I cant see anything

Look at the tick - not at the dog.

If the tick has a head with kind of whiskers/feelers at the top, you've got it all out.

If you've only got the body of the tick, you've left the head in.
(if you do a search on Phil's posts, he's posted a blown up photo of what an in-tact tick looks like).

see thats the prob.
after being brave and getting it out i squealed like a girl and squished it
pathetic i know
only then did i worry if i had left bits

Whoops - not good . you have to get used to having a good look at it to make sure you have it all.

You might still be able to tell by looking at the squished remains (though that's probably even worse than looking at the live tick!)

Yeah, they're really ugly little critters and you will definitely see that head with the little claws or whiskers around it, and all those legs of course! I can't get on with those special instruments, I have to use normal tweezers, and I lightly rotate it, and pop, out it comes!

Oh yeuch......I sympathise Ben, but I chickened out and took Jimmi to the ministrations of the Vet Nurse to have his removed (well - in my defence there were five of them )

I am more than a little ashamed because I used to be a Vet Nurse a very long time ago Nowadays, ticks are on a par with slugs and worms.............I will not touch them with a very long barge pole.

There may well be a tiny lump, even if you did remove the intact tick. Just keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't become inflamed, or bigger.

Just a note on tick removal; if doing it yourself (brave people) then be very careful not to squeeze the abdomen to avoid squirting the stomach contents back into the dog's bloodstream, always put the instrument for removal, be it tweezers or the specialised tool, right against the skin of the dog, and don't squeeze too hard or you may chop the head off.